I woke Kellog this morning by tearing the pain inhibitor from his skull with a pair of pliers and cauterized the bleeding with a blow torch to help re-acquaint him with the concept of pain.
It seems to have worked.
The smug over-confidence seemed to dissolve fairly quickly after that. I explained, very succinctly, to him that I knew he didn't fear death. I also explained that before I was done, he would be begging for it - repeatedly. I explained what he knew - that he was already dead and in hell, that I was the Devil and it was time for the first part of his punishment for his sins.
I saw him struggling to maintain composure without the tech I had removed from his skull. I finally got him to scream about the time I pulled the seventh fingernail off with the same pair of pliers. I saw his wild eyes and they told all I needed to know - the natural endorphins had kicked in. Time to stop. I checked the rope and duct tape I had secured him to the chair with. I sat in front of him, smoked a cigarette and drank a cold beer.
His sweat and controlled breathing let me know that we were back at a baseline, so I began again. He was a real trooper for the last three fingernails.
"Aren't you going to ask me anything?" He spat out.
The question made me chuckle. I hadn't said a word since I started on his fingernails.
"Not yet. You haven't said the magic words yet."
"What are those? Eh? Please?"
I smiled at him, and put out my cigarette in the nail bed of his left middle finger. The scream he let out echoed down the lifeless halls of Ft. Hagen.
"No. You will know them when you say them."
I walked up next to him and changed his ringer's lactate. A man could live for weeks without food, but die in 3 days if they don't get liquids. I was in this for the long haul, and so was he. I picked up the sledgehammer I had placed on the gurney behind my chair.
"When I get out of this.." He started to say.
I cut him off with blows to his feet and ankles. Between the sound of his screams and his bones being crushed under the impact of the sledge, I could hear haggard breathing and something similar to a whimper. I sprayed his ruined appendages down with an antiseptic and then wrapped them in sterile bandages.
"There is no getting out of this." I explained. "This is the rest of your life. Now, we can't let those get infected, can we?"
For the following hour, I listed, by limb, every bone in his body for him. I quietly explained that he should have read all of my file. If he had, he would have understood why the Chinese government had named me "Mogui." It was not just the fact that I was an effective sniper. A sniper, they could have understood - maybe even accepted as a part of the war. What I did was enter into their psyche by leaving them a trail of the bodies of the people I had interrogated. Each one had spoken the magic words before even a single question was asked. I left them video tapes of the interrogations.
"You know I am not afraid to die.. What good is this?" He asked in an almost disembodied voice. I slapped him to bring him back around.
"Fear? This isn't about fear, Kellog. This is about desire. This is about passion. This is about making me believe you."
"You haven't asked me anything!" He barked at me.
In a single motion, I brought the hunting knife I had slid into my hand down hard across the knuckles of the fingers of his left hand, cleanly separating them from his palm and thumb. His howl brought another smile to my face. Another quick application of the blow torch, and the bleeding stopped. I allowed him to regain his focus before I called Dog in with a whistle. My friend sat down and panted merrily at me. Kellog watched in horror as I tossed Dog his fingers. He wretched down the front of himself when he heard the crunching sound. In turn, I poured a bucket of cold water over him to rinse it off.
Between giving time for the adrenaline and endorphins to level out between sessions and the length of the sessions themselves, it had started to get late. Kellog was sobbing.
"Ask me something... I will give you an answer... Anything you want." He pleaded.
"No. Those aren't the magic words... and in any case, not today. Go ahead and sleep now."
"Your telling me to sleep?"
"Of course... sleep deprivation is inhumane."
I even turned out the lights when I left.
